This page will be devoted to collecting links to and information about Mahara and also used for workshops presented on using Mahara as an ePortfolio system.
What is Mahara?
Basically Mahara is an e-portfolio system (where students show evidences of lifelong learning in digital format called “artefacts”) and a social networking system combined. The artefacts can be organized and shared in various “views” and with various “groups.” http://mahara.org/
Mahara is a user-centric system and unlike a teacher led course management system such as Moodle, it is the users that are in possession of their own learning. It allows them to collect and manage their own files such as images, videos, documents, and links, forming their own online portfolios that they can access anywhere.
Mahara has a permissions framework that enables different views of an e-portfolio to be easily managed. These views help students display their artefacts – text files, spreadsheets, images, and videos – in a way they choose and to the people they want. They can also create online communities and social networks through groups, blogs, and forums.
If you don't want everyone to be able to see your View, but you would like to show it to a few people who are not registered on this site, then you can make your View visible to the public through a special link which is difficult to guess. You can let your friends know about your View by pasting the link into an email. The secret URL is a Mahara 1.1 feaure.
How can you make a view available to someone not logged on to your instance of Mahara? First you have to allow public Views in your Mahara, by going to the Site Options page in the administration section and turning that setting on. Then, on the View Access page for your Views, you will have an option to make views available to the public.
Can you prevent students from changing their password? (If they use the student ID number for password)
I see no way to prevent a student from changing their password, regardless of what they use for their password. From the programmers: Nope, though it sounds like a useful feature request. Probably wouldn't take much code to implement
Is there any way to search by password?
No. You can't search by password in any system I'm aware of. Usually passwords are hidden from even the administrator. They usually only have the power to change, but not view a password.
Note from Mahara programmer: The Student ID field is not searchable by default, but I think you can configure it to be a "public" field, in which case it probably would be searchable. You can do that by going to Site Administration, Administer Extensions, and configure the internal artefact plugin.
Is there a limit on text boxes? (for goals, etc.)
Nope, except for a 1500 character limit on wall posts (to stop people breaking other people's walls).
When importing documents – what formats are allowed?
You can upload anything you like. They used to try and restrict this, but it was too unreliable to try and guess the type of file on upload (just looking at the extension isn't a good idea).
How do you add a student to a group? Do they need a naming convention? (see above discussion)
Most commonly, the instructor will create groups (by class or within a class) and then the student will request to join the group. This is the easiest way to form groups. Teachers can also create groups and add or invite students to join the group. Group members can share Views or even submit them to teachers in a "Controlled Group" as part of a formal assessed activity. (It may be possible for a Mahara Administrator to do this, but I have no access to testing this theory and there is no information available online to determine the answer to this question.
Can you think of another dependable way for them to be able to search for their students? They would like to put them in a New Students group initially, and then transfer them into the group of the teacher they are going to. I'm not sure how easy this would be.
you probably want to use the Institutions functionality for this. It allows you to put students in an institution, then have Teachers/school admins become "institutional administrators" in Mahara - which means they can administer those users, but they don't get full site privileges. We used this model on MyPortfolio, which is a nationally hosted service here in NZ - over 150 schools on it at once, and they manage their own users
Can I use Google Docs with Mahara?
Yes, but not easily unless you have your Google account open and have given access to others prior to linking it to your Mahara page. Using Google Docs will extend your storage space though, which is a plus.
What is Mahara?
Basically Mahara is an e-portfolio system (where students show evidences of lifelong learning in digital format called “artefacts”) and a social networking system combined. The artefacts can be organized and shared in various “views” and with various “groups.” http://mahara.org/Mahara is a user-centric system and unlike a teacher led course management system such as Moodle, it is the users that are in possession of their own learning. It allows them to collect and manage their own files such as images, videos, documents, and links, forming their own online portfolios that they can access anywhere.
Mahara has a permissions framework that enables different views of an e-portfolio to be easily managed. These views help students display their artefacts – text files, spreadsheets, images, and videos – in a way they choose and to the people they want. They can also create online communities and social networks through groups, blogs, and forums.
Moodle & Mahara
Mahoodle://Integrating Mahara with MoodleMahara now has an API to import content from external systems. Currently Moodle 2.0 can use it to send Moodle content to Mahara via their "Portfolio API" - http://docs.moodle.org/en/Development:Portfolio_API
Learning Management Systems (LMS) & ePortfolio Differences
Views
Secret URL
If you don't want everyone to be able to see your View, but you would like to show it to a few people who are not registered on this site, then you can make your View visible to the public through a special link which is difficult to guess. You can let your friends know about your View by pasting the link into an email. The secret URL is a Mahara 1.1 feaure.How can you make a view available to someone not logged on to your instance of Mahara? First you have to allow public Views in your Mahara, by going to the Site Options page in the administration section and turning that setting on. Then, on the View Access page for your Views, you will have an option to make views available to the public.
Help Using Mahara
Mahara User Guidehttp://wiki.mahara.org/User_Guide
Quick Reference Guide for Students
http://demo.mahara.org/artefact/file/download.php?file=4277
Videos on Mahara in the context of using it under EU project MOSEP
Mahara Tutorial 1: Registration http://www.scivee.tv/node/5419
Mahara Tutorial 2: Options http://www.scivee.tv/node/5420
Mahara Tutorial 3: Profile http://www.scivee.tv/node/5421
Mahara Tutorial 4: Portfolio http://www.scivee.tv/node/5422
Mahara Tutorial 5: Groups http://www.scivee.tv/node/5423
Mahara Tutorials from CTER (Done with a screen capture software. No audio.)
http://cterport.ed.uiuc.edu/technologies_folder/mahara-tutorials
FAQ's:
Can you prevent students from changing their password? (If they use the student ID number for password)I see no way to prevent a student from changing their password, regardless of what they use for their password.
From the programmers: Nope, though it sounds like a useful feature request. Probably wouldn't take much code to implement
Is there any way to search by password?
No. You can't search by password in any system I'm aware of. Usually passwords are hidden from even the administrator. They usually only have the power to change, but not view a password.
Note from Mahara programmer: The Student ID field is not searchable by default, but I think you can configure it to be a "public" field, in which case it probably would be searchable. You can do that by going to Site Administration, Administer Extensions, and configure the internal artefact plugin.
Is there a limit on text boxes? (for goals, etc.)
Nope, except for a 1500 character limit on wall posts (to stop people breaking other people's walls).
When importing documents – what formats are allowed?
You can upload anything you like. They used to try and restrict this, but it was too unreliable to try and guess the type of file on upload (just looking at the extension isn't a good idea).
How do you add a student to a group? Do they need a naming convention? (see above discussion)
Most commonly, the instructor will create groups (by class or within a class) and then the student will request to join the group. This is the easiest way to form groups. Teachers can also create groups and add or invite students to join the group. Group members can share Views or even submit them to teachers in a "Controlled Group" as part of a formal assessed activity. (It may be possible for a Mahara Administrator to do this, but I have no access to testing this theory and there is no information available online to determine the answer to this question.
Can you think of another dependable way for them to be able to search for their students? They would like to put them in a New Students group initially, and then transfer them into the group of the teacher they are going to. I'm not sure how easy this would be.
you probably want to use the Institutions functionality for this. It allows you to put students in an institution, then have Teachers/school admins become "institutional administrators" in Mahara - which means they can administer those users, but they don't get full site privileges. We used this model on MyPortfolio, which is a nationally hosted service here in NZ - over 150 schools on it at once, and they manage their own users
Can I use Google Docs with Mahara?
Yes, but not easily unless you have your Google account open and have given access to others prior to linking it to your Mahara page. Using Google Docs will extend your storage space though, which is a plus.